The Last Connection was my examination work for the high school in Küsnacht - Switzerland, for which I got two awards. (One of the five best examinationworks of 2'500 works in my State Zürich and Best Film in Lucerne) It was my first 3d-project, so it was an experiment. A big part of this work was the concept art. I created over 400 pages of drawings for some environments. I worked a long time on the 3d environments, about two years in my freetime after shool, but I hadn't the time to work on caracters, because I learned everything by myself in this two years.

I created the environments for an other, bigger 3d-animation-project called "The bridge to the past", but there wasn't enough time to complete the project by myself. In a short time I created "The Last Connection" with the environments I already had. Because there were only a few months until the premiere and I could only work in my freetime on this project.
It was my goal to realise an animation without caracters an reuse my 3d environments. It's a film that couldn't work with caracters. It's not a caracter that tells a story, it's the environment that create an atmosphere and let the viewer step in this dark world. A caracter on the screen would destroy that special athmosphere, created by the environment, the sounds and the music.
It's very important that you turn on your speakers, because there is not that atmosphere without the soundeffects.
You find making of's, concept art, paintings, the storyboard, a trailer, wireframes, a tutorial, the full movie and a lot more on my homepage.

http://www.marcelbaumann.ch (http://www.marcelbaumann.ch/)

(3d Software: 3ds max)

EricPoehlsen

11-25-2004, 05:35 AM

This is really "heavy"

Of course you expect some kind of end coming from the start of the short. But the real ending is more extreme then all I expected.

jeff

11-25-2004, 06:30 AM

Pretty amazing work. Some of the environmental animations are questionable during the destruction of everything, but this is still excellent to see.

I doubt there is much to crit that you already haven’t heard from other judges of your work so I’ll leave it at that.

+1 compliment to the stacks im sure you already have.

mb

11-26-2004, 08:12 PM

Thanks for your comments "EricPoehlsen" and "Chaos Knight".

Chaos Knight, why do you think some of the environmental animations are questionable?
Yes of course the animations are not very realistic, but it wasn't the goal to show how the end of the world would look in real. The bridge has to be understood as a symbol of the humans world, that will end one day. This last bridge connects the last two parts of the earth on which the machines of the humans still function, there is also still a gravity on this rocks. This is not realistic, but I my goal was to create a world like in a heavy dream. Do you mean that with questionable?

-Vormav-

11-27-2004, 12:48 PM

Very very nice. Very creepy, too. :)
I especially loved the lighting and camera movements. I didn't like the look of the flames from the torches much at first, but then when you turn around and look at them from further away, they look perfect with the way they flow in the wind. They just seemed a bit thick up close.

DanielWichterich

11-27-2004, 07:54 PM

Great atmosphere, especially by the use of sound and music.

Outgoing from the pictures I see on your homepage, a lot of detail is lost due to compression. That's a pity!

Nevertheless: an interesting and inspiring work!

TheGiiro

11-29-2004, 03:48 PM

Whoa... thats got to be one of the best animations i have ever seen.
Only shame was the fact that it was so compressed so i couldn't see all the details.
I just hope you get the high version on-line soon.

mb

11-29-2004, 06:33 PM

Thanks for your comments! I'm glad that you like the movie.

I will try to upload a higher resolution Version of the movie soon.
There is a high quality Trailer on my homepage. You can see there some scenes in high resolution if you want.

Critics and comments are welcome.

grury

11-29-2004, 07:35 PM

Good work M.B., nice modelling,texturing and render, I like the mood.
but I think its far too long, although the shots are pretty diverse, after a while it just feels a bit repetitive. Also the camera work becomes annoying after a while, all the floatiness, zoom in/out, fly troughs, etc just gives it a very amateurish look.
But hey, congratulations for your hard work, not trying to put you down with my words, think over all still looks pretty amusing.

Cheers

Dennik

11-29-2004, 11:51 PM

As most people said, your modeling texturing and lighting abilities, are great.
But story wise and camera wise, it was a bit weak.
The scenery and the deserted feeling it gave, reminded me of a 1995 movie called "Langoliers" (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0112040/) which was based on a Steven King book.
Despite the fact that you've thrown a lot of manhours at your short, i realy have to say that you made it long and the viewer loses interest because you don't make any point or any progress in your story by just showing flythoughts. http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/shrug.gif
Other than that, its a great piece of work. :)

uwil

11-30-2004, 04:48 PM

the modelling looks impressive:thumbsup:, but haven't watch it yet....be back.

HenningK

12-02-2004, 09:02 PM

Sweet. I loved it. The lack of motion gives the action at the end so much more significance. I thought the camera movement was quite good, hypnotic. I especially liked the shot tumbling away from the tower on the hill. I would suggest some more still shots of important details close-up, however, like the signboard. Make a rhythm. Waiting for the High-res version to see all the details.
love,hen

webhead

12-03-2004, 04:20 AM

Obviously a great deal of work went into this film. Unfortunately, I didn't get the point of the film at all. I felt like a long time was spent building up suspense for what amounted to some very dreamlike - almost abstract scenes of seemingly senseless destruction that left me feeling like there was no real payoff or rhyme or reason to this film. I kept wanting to see someone appear from the shadows to grab my attention, or see some clue to what the story was behind this world I was peering into - but it didn't happen.
I disagree with you: I think a character(s) would have breathed some life into this short rather than hurt it. A "story" without characters is hard to pull off. It has been done:
Ever read Ray Bradbury's story, "There Will Come Soft Rains"? If I remember correctly, that had no people in it; only a dying dog who appears briefly in the story, and yet so much was said by just the house and appliances.
I would be interested to know what you intended the audience to take away from this piece.
For me, anyway, this would be better as a modeling/texturing reel rather than a narrative film.

mb

12-04-2004, 02:51 PM

Thanks for your helpful critics and comments.

webhead, in many ways I agree with you. It was my intention to create an emotional feeling and a dreamlike athmosphere, where everybody can build his own story about it. To give you my thoughts and ideas about the storybackground, we are in a world witch has been left by humans. The things we are creating will exist longer than our body. A part of our souls will still live in buildings and human constructions. I used the bridge as a symbol for the connection beetween the last parts of our material world. And even this part will not last forever. This is the symbolic part where the bridge breaks of.

It was not my intention to create a narrative film, because the whole project was my first 3d experiment. But I dind't want to just show a normal demo reel with this environments I have created for an other film project. There was just no more time to work out a story. I had to create a story for the environments I already have completly produced and not environments and animation for a story. Thats a big difference.

Thanks again for your critics.

webhead

12-04-2004, 05:45 PM

Thanks for the reply, M.Baumann. I can appreciate that you had little time to flesh out a story - having been there myself! Also, knowing what symbolism you were trying to convey
is helpful. Keep pluggin' :buttrock:

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